Quilty Fun!

So I've been sewing like a mad woman over the last week or so, and I have a few things to share today! First up, my Aviatrix medallion is completely pieced! I really struggled to get the full quilt in a photo (no helpers available, so I perched on a ladder), but you get the idea ;o) 

I ended up using my sidekick ruler and hexnmore rulers to cut the butterfly border, which made it super quick to cut. The did take a while to piece (simply because there are so many of them!), but it was well worth the effort. I absolutely adore this quilt - and it's basted and ready to start quilting really soon! I just have some horrifically overdue bee blocks to make, and then I'll be quilting this beast. The outer borders are a wee bit full, but I'm hoping some clever quilting choices will flatten it out (no idea what those clever choices are by the way - but I'm all ears if anyone has ideas!!) 

Before I get onto my bee blocks, I needed to whip up a class sample for a Graffiti quilting class I'll be teaching at Frangipani Fabrics in a few months. I spent most of today working on this - and it was SO much fun. I'll be unpicking some of the really dense stitching (I guess you could call it thread painting) in the centre (which might take a few hours I reckon!) but other than that I am so happy with how it's coming together. I've always been a bit scared of using thread that doesn't blend - but this quilt is making me change my mind. It's the first true whole cloth quilt I've done, and I'm pretty sure there'll be more. I haven't enjoyed quilting this much ever!

It's a bit hard to tell in these photos, but I'm changing thread colour as I move out from the circle (which I did mark - only that though, the rest is free hand). I'm using a range of Aurifil threads - some 50wt, some 40wt - and aiming for a rainbow effect. Some of the designs I'm using are based on Karlee Porter's Graffiti quilting book, but as I grow more confident with it, I'm trying to make it more 'me' than Karlee ;o)

These photos are all a bit sub-par (as usual, night time quilting and too impatient to wait till tomorrow for good light!!) - but I promise I'll get some better ones when I've finished quilting this one. It is kind of addictive doing this kind of quilting - so I'll more than likely have this finished by the end of the week!

I hope you're all having a great week! 

xx Jess

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday :o)

Quilting again!!

In an effort to blog more regularly, I've decided to start doing WIP Wednesday posts again for a while. I'm tending to make more time consuming projects these days, so rather than go weeks or months without posting, I think having a weekly 'check in' will work well :o) As a bonus, this week has seen the return of my motivation to sew at last! I've been feeling really flat since I came home from Austin (jet lag hit me hard), so it was a relief to want to go down to my studio again yesterday.

I was keen to start using some of the ideas I got from the classes I took with Angela Walters and Krista Withers, so I took my roll up of Cotton Couture from Polka.Dot.Tea Fabrics, sorted them by value and sewed the strips together until I had a quilt top. We got a couple of new furry family members while I was away, and I didn't realise how much more complicated basting a quilt would be with two kittens trying to eat the safety pins. (They fell asleep on the quilt after a while though, so I think it has kitten approval at least!)

From there, it was simply a matter of using some of the ideas Krista shared in the class I did, and trying out graffiti quilting for the first time (thanks to the amazing book of the same name by the ridiculously talented Karlee Porter. If you've never heard of her, go have a look now. I promise you won't be disappointed!) I'm about half way done - and I'm having an absolute blast. I'm using a double layer of 100% wool batting, and the texture it's giving this quilt is phenomenal. 

 

I have to admit I find this kind of quilting quite difficult - it's pushed me right out of my comfort zone. I guess it will get easier with practice, but even if it doesn't it is so much fun, and I'm determined to do more and more of it. I decided from the outset that I wouldn't rip anything out while I was quilting this quilt, but use it as a learning experience as much as anything. I have a tendency to be ridiculously critical of my work, so it's been quite liberating just letting myself play and not worrying too much about whether it's 'good enough'. Some areas of this work better than others, but I'm really happy with the overall texture so far :o)

 I'm hoping to get this one finished in the next week or so (especially since the intended recipient was born almost two weeks ago!). I have a stack of other things I should be doing rather than this (cough bee blocks cough) but I needed to get this idea out of my system first :o) 

xx Jess